Economics Drive Populism and Socialism The remarkable surge of support for the Democratic Socialists of America over the past year is part of a much longer and larger trend. Over the past two decades, the centrist left-right duopoly that governed most Western democracies after World War II has crumbled. Populist-nationalist movements have enfeebled and, in some cases, displaced traditional conservative parties. On the left, hard-line socialists have made inroads against liberal reformers and social democrats. The new left and new right disagree on many issues, including immigration, culture and foreign policy. But they agree that the economic policies of the old duopoly have caused deindustrialization, slowed economic growth, and widened the economic gap between highly educated urban areas and less educated small towns and rural regions. In the U.S., discontent about long, costly wars and lingering controversy over the 2008-09 financial crisis and the pandemic have also contribut...
